Demolishing the ghosts of a housing crash

A demolition crew recently razed some unfinished houses at a development in the town of Athlone. (Paulo Nunes dos Santos for The New York Times)

"During that time, Ireland allowed a kind of honor code building inspection. The result is that many people paid high prices for houses that are fire hazards or sinking in bogs or are built with faulty foundations or missing drainage systems, a problem that is even harder and more expensive to solve."
— NYT

Suzanne Daley examines how Ireland is addressing the problem of ghost estates, unfinished leftovers from the booming days of the Celtic Tiger. Government has embraced demolition as one solution, especially for homes which were never finished and which would cost too much to complete. However, given the scale of the problem, current demolition plans are not adequate to the need.